Marie Bonaparte was a great grand niece of Napoleon Bonaparte. She was a daughter of Prince Roland Bonaparte and Marie Félix Blanc). Her paternal grandfather was Pierre Napoleon Bonaparte, son of Lucien Bonaparte, who was one of Napoleon’s rebellious and disinherited younger brothers.

For this reason, despite her title Marie was not a member of the dynastic branch of the Bonapartes who claimed the French imperial throne from exile. However, her maternal grandfather was François Blanc, the principal real estate developer of Monte Carlo. It was from this side of her family that Marie inherited her great fortune.

Mathilde Bonaparte 1820 – 1904 was a daughter of Napoleon’s brother Jerome Bonaparte, and she admitted homeopathic supporter Theophile Gautier into her salon, and he became a librarian in the court of Napoleon III

2 thoughts on “The Bonaparte Family and Homeopathy”

Great work, though you’ve got some errors and missing information here that is worthy of attention.

First, although some historians have mentioned that Napoleon Bonaparte was treated by a homeopath, there is much more evidence that this is not true. Even Hahnemann was told of the possibility that Napoleon was treated homeopathically, but Hahnemann was totally incredulous (and appropriately so).

Second, although Dr. Quin was asked to treat Napoleon in Elba in 1821, Quin was NOT trained in homeopathy at that time.

I hope that you (or someone) will consider writing more about the Bonaparte family because I know that there is more information about their use of homeopathy. I also know that Napoleon III was sometimes appreciative of homeopathy and at other times, he was antagonistic to it (he was frustrated with ALL doctors at different times).

Finally, you mention Settimio Centamori above. HE is worthy of one of your bios. He was a leading Italian homeopath.

These historical references are quite intriguing and we are indebted both to Dana for his wonderful recent book “The Homeopathic Revolution” and to Sue for her interesting comments on the Bonaparte family and their Homeopathic connections. I had read somewhere that Freud was aided in his escape from Nazi Germany but did not know that Marie Bonaparte was the person who had helped him.

Again, thanks for interesting historical information.

For those who did not know, there is an awesome collection of older Homeoapthy books, many of them classics, free for the download at Google book search.